Featured Image Credit: 9 News
Topics: Animal Cruelty, Animals, Australia, US News, Viral, Social Media
Joe Yates
Topics: Animal Cruelty, Animals, Australia, US News, Viral, Social Media
An American influencer who outraged Australians after a video appeared to show her taking a baby wombat from its distressed mother before running away, has issued a two-minute video statement.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese slammed Montana-based content creator Sam Jones for uploading the video onto the internet, which has since been deleted.
In the recording, Jones - who describes herself as an 'outdoor enthusiast and hunter' - can be seen grinning as she held the visibly agitated animal up to the camera, before saying: "I caught a baby wombat!"
The influencer was seemingly aware that this wasn’t going to plan as the wombat could be heard making hissing noises. People who know their animals remarked that this was a clear sign it was distressed.
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"I want to begin by taking responsibility for my actions. What I did was an incredible mistake, and there hasn't been a moment I haven't regretted it," she began her two-minute-22-second dialogue.
"However, there's something much bigger at play here, and it would be a disservice to ignore it. If this situation has proven anything, it's proven that Australians care deeply about their wildlife, and that is something I intensely admire every year.
"However, the Australian government issues permits for the killing of thousands and thousands of wombats across Australia, along with millions of kangaroos."
Wombats are a protected species in five of the nation's six states, but in Victoria - the country's most southern state, home to Melbourne - they are regarded as an agricultural pest and are exterminated under the Australian government's sanctioned authority to control wildlife (ATCW) permits.
Under the code of practice, residents are instructed to 'destroy the brain' of a wombat joey as the preferred way of removing them from a landowner's property.
She continued: "Australia, the same government that is calling for my head, is the one that spends millions of your tax dollars to mass slaughter native Australian animals, as well as the Snowy River and Kosciuszko brumbies, wild pigs and numerous deer species, many of whose corpses are left to rot.
"Whether this is necessary horrifying or somewhere in between, is for you to decide. However, the hypocrisy is staggering. The Australian Government and outrage field media have chosen to make an example of me rather than address the mass killing, poisoning and trapping of wildlife that happens daily under their watch.
"Even more disturbing, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese publicly expressed his own desire for harm to come to me when the highest office in the country signals that this level of hatred is acceptable, it sets a concerning precedent."
Yes, Aussie PM Albanese suggested that Jones tried snatching a baby crocodile from its mom.
Australian PM Anthony Albanese even called the stunt an 'outrage', stating: “To take a baby wombat from its mother, and clearly causing distress from the mother, is just an outrage.
“And, you know, I suggest to this so-called influencer, maybe she might try some other Australian animals.”
He added: “Take a baby crocodile from its mother and see how you go there.
“Take another animal that can actually fight back rather than stealing a baby wombat from its mother.”